


Our People

by SugdenLovesDingle



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: M/M, supportive husbands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:20:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22742389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugdenLovesDingle/pseuds/SugdenLovesDingle
Summary: "I thought it would be nice. Be more visible."orRobert tries to figure out what it means to him to be part of the LGBT community
Relationships: Aaron Dingle/Robert Sugden
Comments: 4
Kudos: 71





	Our People

**Author's Note:**

> So normal people probably sleep at 5AM, I started writing this on my phone at 5AM.  
> I was thinking about how much I hate a certain film and how Robert didn’t get to truly be himself until he was about 30 and how much he missed out on by growing up with a dad like Jack... and then this happened.

“That was…” Robert started as the credits rolled over the screen.

“Pretentious bullshit?” Aaron asked.

“No! It won a lot of awards, you know.”

Aaron snorted.

“What for? Most pretentious film ever? Most boring film ever made? A cure for insomnia?”

“Alright, I get it, you hated it.”

“You didn’t then?”

Robert shrugged.

“It got a lot of good reviews…”

“It was weird and pretentious. And the casting…” Aaron shuddered “Why did they cast a 12 year old to play the love interest for a 35 year old? I feel creepy just watching it...”

“It’s not that bad!” Robert protested. “I’m sure it was all legal when they filmed it… And they were both adults…”

Aaron shrugged.

“Didn’t look like it. And the whole thing with the peach, what was that about? That was disgusting. If you ever do something like that to me I’m divorcing you.”

“Noted.” Robert sighed as he turned the TV off. “You can pick the film next time. I won’t put you through my bad tastes again.”

“This isn’t your taste. I know your taste and even though it’s mostly bad, it’s not this bad. Why did you want to watch it anyway?”

“I told you, it got good reviews.”

“And since when do you care about that?”

“Dunno… Just thought it would be a nice change from the stuff we usually watch.”

“We watch that because we like it… this… not so much.”

“Look, I’m sorry for making you sit through it,ok? I just thought it would be nice to watch a film that’s popular in our community.”

Aaron frowned.

“Our what?”

“The LGBT community. We’re not very active are we?”

“So?”

“So I thought it would be nice for us to be more aware of what’s happening to our people.”

“Our people?" Aaron put his hand on Robert’s forehead. "Are you feeling alright? Who are you and what have you done to my husband?!”

“Forget it.” Robert said as he got up from the sofa and walked into the kitchen. “Do you want another beer? Or a brew?”

Aaron followed him to the kitchen and wrapped his arms around Robert’s waist from behind, standing on his tippy toes slightly to rest his chin on his husband’s shoulder.

“Hey, talk to me.”

“What about?” Robert said, not turning around.

“Why you’re suddenly so interested in bad gay films and our people and our community.”

Robert shrugged but didn’t say anything.

“Rob… Come on… ”

“Fine.” Robert turned around. “I was talking to Brenda the other day. Just making small talk while I waited for my coffee…” he trailed off.

“Yeah…” Aaron pushed

“She mentioned some celebrity that had just come out. And she was talking to me like I knew all about him but I had no clue.”

“Ok so you’re not up to date on celebrity gossip, so what?”

“Then Leyla came in and she asked her about him and she knew exactly what she was talking about.”

“So? Leyla is always in the shop, she probably reads all those gossip magazines.”

“And then they started talking about all of these TV series and films with gay characters and gay actors and famous gay people… but other than Harvey Milk and Graham Norton I knew none of them.”

“So? Nobody is going to quiz you on gay cinema because you’re bi.”

“I know… But I just felt stupid and a bit ashamed that I didn’t know anything about any of that when it’s about me. Us.”

“Is that why you suddenly started wearing that bi flag pin?”

Robert shrugged.

“Just thought it would be nice. Be more visible…”

“Does it bother you that we don’t have pride flags all over the place?”

“No. I just… I never really thought about it… but… I don’t know… Brenda got me thinking.”

“Dangerous, that.” Aaron teased to break the tension, getting a small smile from Robert as reply.

“I know… But… we never go to gay bars, we don’t have gay friends, we don’t go to pride.”

“Do you want to go to pride?” Aaron asked.

“I don’t know.” Robert ran a hand through his hair. “I just don’t know. I didn’t grow up with gay characters on tv… not really. And when I discovered I liked boys as well as girls… well you know… I buried it.”

Aaron nodded.

“So you feel like you have to make up for lost time?”

Robert sighed and sat down at the kitchen table.

“I… I don’t know. The last time I went to a gay bar I only pulled my husband. And the one guy that showed an interest in me… well… I had no clue what to do or say and I ran a mile.”

Aaron scrunched up his face in confusion.

“So, what… you regret not dating other guys before you married me?”

“No! Absolutely not!” Robert insisted. “I love you. More than anything.”

“That’s good to hear.” Aaron softened. “And I love you too.” He sat down at the table with Robert.

“I guess I just… feel like I’ve missed out on… growing up bisexual? If that makes any sense… I just feel so clueless sometimes.” Robert sighed. “I mean… before Liv came out to us, I’d never heard of asexuality. Not really.”

“Well… neither had I. But we can do our research, right? And learn.”

Robert nodded.

“Sometimes I’m jealous of her.” He admitted. “She’s got herself figured out at 17. She knows who she is and isn’t afraid to be that person. When I was her age… I was a mess.”

“Not much has changed then, eh?” Aaron teased.

Robert chuckled.

“Right back at ya, mate.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, the only sound in the house the faint humming coming from the fridge and the ticking of the clock in the living room.

Aaron was the first to speak up.

“We could go to Bar West sometime. Or another gay bar. I mean… we’re supposed to be saving up for the baby, but a few drinks on a night out won’t break the bank, right?”

Robert smiled and reached over the table to squeeze Aaron’s hand.

“I suppose not.”

Aaron got up to grab his laptop.

“What are you doing?”

“Research.” Aaron said simply, opening up his computer and smiling at Robert over the top of his screen. “I remember seeing posters for some gay film festival in Hotten the other day.”

“You want to go to a gay film festival?”

“As long as the films they’re showing are decent and not the pretentious shit you just made me sit through.” Aaron grinned. “Where did you find it anyway?”

“Internet…” Robert admitted. “I just googled popular gay films and I found this list… this was one of the firsts on the list.”

“Yeah? What else was on it?”

“Don’t know… There was this one film I wanted to rent on iTunes.. I forgot the title but it’s about two guys working on a farm in Yorkshire…”

Aaron laughed.

“You want to watch a film about us? Us in an alternative universe? Where you’re the farmer and I’m the sexy and mysterious farm hand looking for work.” He joked.

“You make it sound like porn!” Robert laughed too.

“Nothing wrong with that.” Aaron grinned.

“I think I prefer doing it rather than watching it.”

“Play your cards right and you might just get lucky later on.” Aaron said and winked at Robert who laughed.

“Stop trying to distract me! What’s on at that festival? Anything good?”

Aaron turned his attention back to the computer screen.

“Yeah I think so. No peaches in sight.” He grinned. “Tickets are only a tenner. We could go for it. I’m sure we can find someone to take Seb for a night. Maybe Cain as payback for all the times he left us with Kyle and Isaac.”

“I’m not sure I trust Cain to look after our son and not dump him on someone else when he has a last minute vendetta to deal with.”

Aaron hummed in agreement.

“Maybe my mum then. Or Vic. We’ll find someone.” He said and clicked around on the website for a bit. “And done! Two tickets to the Hotten gay film festival are all ours.”

“Nice.”

“It’s part of a mini pride festival.” Aaron told him, still looking around the website.

“A mini pride festival? How do you have a mini festival?”

“It’s organised by this local LGBT support group. There’s no parade like in the summer but they have all kinds of events. Speed dating, singles night…”

“Yeah I think we’re all set in that department.” Robert said, moving his chair closer to Aaron’s so he could read the screen too.

“Disco night for the over 50, YouTube meetup, loving and living with HIV. None of that is really for us, is it?”

“Suppose not. But what about this?” Aaron moved the cursor to a picture of two women holding a baby. “Rainbow playgroup. For kids of queer parents from age 6 months and up.” He looked at Robert. “That could be fun for Seb. And it would give us a chance to meet some other same sex parents.”

Robert nodded slowly, as if he was weighing the pros and cons in his head.

“Do you think he’ll like it?”

Aaron shrugged.

“Only one way to find out. They meet every Wednesday afternoon at the Hotten community centre. We could take him.”

“I don’t know… maybe we should stick to the film thing. And maybe check out the parade in Leeds in the summer instead. He’ll like the colours…”

“Nobody is going to judge you for not knowing every celebrity who just came out or the hot new couple on a tv show.” Aaron said, picking up on Robert’s reluctance.

“I know… I just… almost feel like I have to study before meeting these people. I’ve never really paid attention to LGB- our history… Never even been to pride before.” He admitted.

“Neither have I. When I lived in France, Ed wanted me to go to pride with him but I didn’t want to… and in the end we broke up before the actual event. And then when I came back here… there was you.” Aaron grinned and leaned in for a kiss.

Robert softened.

“I suppose we could send them an email… for some more information…”

Aaron smiled and opened his email program and started typing.

“And if all else fails, you can always just deflect the attention to your gorgeous husband.” He joked and Robert chuckled.

“Thanks for doing this for me.” He said sincere.

“It’s for me too. They’re my people too, you know.” Aaron grinned. “And if this is what it takes to make you stop making me sit through a monstrosity of a film like we just watched, there are very few things I wouldn’t do.”

“I promise to run all films by you first from now on. All car chases and explosions and no-one getting it on with a piece of fruit.”

“The way it should be.” Aaron said and hit send. “No turning back now.”

“I don’t want to. Not as long as you’ll be with me.” Robert said, grabbing Aaron’s hand and linking their fingers together.

“I will be.” Aaron promised “Every step of the way.”


End file.
